Omit the chorus

Illinois Symphony moves ahead with instruments only

Illinois Symphony Orchestra's 2008-09 concert
season begins next week with one notable difference: For the first time in
more than two decades, the repertoire will be entirely instrumental, save
for an unnamed guest chorus for the "Highlights from Messiah" section of the
December concert.

The change is the result of the unhappy departure of
the second chorus conductor in the span of three years. Marion van der Loo
was terminated in 2005 after 14 years as chorus conductor. Her successor,
Richard Robert Rossi, resigned in May after contract negotiations stalled
over his request for a raise [see "Same song, second verse"
July 3, 2008].

Over the summer, the ISO board of directors
apparently decided to proceed without a chorus, redesigning, reprinting and
mailing a revised marketing brochure announcing "repertoire
updates." The glossy, full-color, 16-page publication mostly matches
the one mailed to subscribers earlier in the summer, except the fourth
Masterworks concert in the original brochure featured Brahm's Requiem; it now features Aaron
Copland's Billy the Kid Ballet Suite, Samuel Barber's violin
concerto, and Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite.

The brochure and another one to follow in November
were part of a planned marketing strategy, and should generate enough sales
to compensate for the cost, according to a former ISO official.

The ISO also has no official administrative chief.
The board offered the job to Ernie Toplis, former executive director of the
Southwest Florida Symphony, but Toplis declined the job for personal
reasons. In an e-mail to Illinois Times, Toplis said he had been anticipating a return to the
Midwest, and was disappointed that he could not.

"I don't have to tell you that the
orchestra has a great board and Karen Deal is a fantastic Music/Artistic
Director," Toplis wrote.

Former executive director Cheryl Snyder is now
director of development. Asked whether the ISO is still searching for an
administrator, music director Karen Lynne Deal said in an e-mail that
"that is a board matter."

News of the demise of the chorus trickled slowly to
its members. Daniel Fry, the pianist who has for nine years accompanied the
chorus during rehearsals, says he made several inquiries about the chorus
before finally asking a board member "point-blank in an e-mail"
about the fate of the chorus. "I was told the decision was made that
the group would no longer exist," Fry says, "and at the end of
that e-mail there was a thanks from the board for my years of
service."

A few weeks later, Fry says, he sent an e-mail to
chorus members telling them how much he had enjoyed working with them.
Their responses indicated that they hadn't heard that the chorus was
history.

Fry, who was paid $100 per service, says he will miss
making music with the chorus. "I hope the folly of this situation is
ultimately seen," he says, "because in my estimation,
there's no question that the season will not be as strong without a
standing choral ensemble.

"In other words, if they do Messiah with some church choirs
they've put together, that's fine. But it's not the same
as having a symphony chorus that rehearses as a unit. It doesn't
present the music in as polished a format as it could be, and has
been."

Both Rossi and van der Loo are still wielding their
batons over other choral groups. Van der Loo directs the Renaissance group
Prairieland Voices as well as the Springfield Choral Society, which earlier
this year performed a series of concerts in Spain, and played with Kronos
Quartet at Sangamon Auditorium. Rossi, director of orchestral and choral
activities at Eastern Illinois University, and organist at First
Presbyterian Church in Champaign, will conduct a full slate of concerts at
EIU, and perform Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with his chamber
orchestra in the spring.